[closed]

[wingedman]

who: Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes (MCU)
what: Sam definitely isn't looking for Bucky, he's just out here to fight monsters.
when: March 29
where: Somewhere in the abandoned city
warnings: Whatever warnings you need for a brainwashed ex-assassin.

There's only so long Sam can spend cooped up in an office before he needs to stretch his legs - and, in this case, his wings. The jetpack makes it a lot easier to get around the abandoned city, and to avoid the monsters that lurk in the streets. And while he's ostensibly there to do some extermination, he can't deny that he's maybe keeping an eye out for Bucky. He'd told the guy that he'd leave him alone, but the other Bucky had pointed out that his world's Sam had been instrumental in helping him find his way, and he can't put those words out of his mind. He's left Redwing behind in favor of strapping a pack of nonperishables where the drone would normally go, just in case.

But he can't do everything from the air, and so eventually Sam takes to searching the buildings on foot. He's inside one of them, climbing up a set of stairs, when he's ambushed by a pack of giant lizard things. Sam's not stupid - he's walking with one of his guns unholstered and the safety off, just in case, and he fires into the knot of creatures. But what he doesn't expect is another bunch coming up from behind and trapping him.

"Aw, shit."

Yeah, maybe he should have brought some backup along.

Comments

[wingedman]

[Uh-huh, that isn't avoiding the topic at all. Sam can tell these things, he's spent time around Steve.]

Nope. [There's a clatter of rubble as Sam carefully starts shifting a few smaller pieces, the kind that don't look like they're holding anything up. He's trained to dig people out from the outside, not from the inside.] I'm hoping all those monsters got pretty damn squashed, 'cause otherwise, we're sitting ducks.

[advanced]

[He hears the movement coming slightly to his left and twists as much as he can in that position, reaching out with his metal arm to try and break through the small amount of rubble separating them.]

There's nothing alive down here but us.

[Trust him. He saw how the lizards swarmed away as the building fell, like they're used to that happening and know how to deal with it.]

[wingedman]

That's...mostly reassuring.

[Doesn't mean something isn't going to come along and eat them, but at least they aren't in any immediate danger.

Sam reaches out, clearing more away from the same area, and finally gets a small hole he can see Bucky through.]

Sorry for getting you into this mess, man.

[advanced]

[He looks dusty, but mostly unhurt. His hair is slightly matted with blood where he hit something on the way down, but it looks like the cut was so small that it's already closed up.]

You didn't.

[He shrugs slightly.]

I chose to come in after you, I didn't have to.

[wingedman]

[Sam starts shifting some of the rubble on the lower half of his body - carefully, choosing smaller chunks that don't look like they're supporting anything important.]

I appreciate it. [He glances up to smile at Bucky.] I woulda been dinner if not for you.

[advanced]

[The smile makes him uncomfortable and he returns it with a light frown.]

Steve wouldn't want you to die.

[Not that he's acting as a weird creepy stalker bodyguard for Steve or anything.]

[wingedman]

See, I was hoping more for altruism and some sort of developing a sense of individualism instead of doing what you think Steve would want. But I'll take whatever involves me not dying, just in case you think I sound like an ingrate.

[Also, doing what he thinks Steve wants doesn't make any sense to Sam, but trying to figure Bucky out is difficult at the best of times.]

[advanced]

[Maybe there had been bits of that too, he doesn't actually want to watch someone else die. But it had been primarily because Sam is Steve's friend.]

I don't need your gratitude.

[He can sound as much like an ingrate as he wants.]

Can you widen the gap between us so I can reach you?